Krijn Paaijmans

My research focuses on insect-pathogen-parasite systems exposed to natural diurnal temperature rhythms

The potential for climate change to increase the risk of vector borne diseases like malaria is frequently in the news. However, in the scientific literature there remains considerable debate as to what the magnitude of any effects might be, and indeed whether there will be any change in risk at all. That the dynamics and distribution of malaria is affected by environmental factors such as temperature is not in question; mosquitoes are small, cold-blooded, short-lived insects whose development and behavior is strongly linked to prevailing conditions. But exactly how it will be affected is unclear because there is still relatively little known about basic malaria and mosquito biology in relation to natural temperatures in the field. For example, many studies link malaria dynamics to coarse measures of environmental temperature, such as mean monthly temperatures. Yet mosquitoes experience temperatures that fluctuate from hour to hour and do not live under ‘average monthly conditions’.  The aim in my studies is to better inform the current debate by examining what effects natural daily fluctuations in temperature have on the potential of mosquitoes to transmit malaria.